The Bodo weavers of Kokrajhar: eri silk and the quiet economy of the north bank
Eri silk — 'peace silk', spun without killing the worm — is finding a global audience from the Bodo belt.
In the villages of Kokrajhar, Bodo women have spun eri silk for generations, winding the creamy fibre from cocoons without harming the worm — a practice now marketed worldwide as ‘peace silk’.
The eri value chain has quietly become one of Assam’s most reliable rural economies, with cooperatives handling 60 per cent of output.
Designers in Delhi and Guwahati are now working directly with weavers, and the first export order for eri shawls left for Japan last spring.